Sea of Thieves is a brilliant game where you can control three different-sized ships with various crew sizes and group up with your friends to rule the waves. But you know what would make it even cooler? A man o’ war.
I recently watched Black Sails, which is brilliant, though it’s got a bit of a different vibe to the family-friendly Sea of Thieves. There’s an awe-inducing moment in the show where a huge battleship - a man o’ war - opens up its full broadside cannons on an enemy. It made me wonder if that experience could translate into Sea of Thieves, allowing us to sail a man o’ war with a larger crew. I asked game director Mike Chapman if there’s any possibility of this happening in the future.
“In the past, we did early designs for what different ship sizes would be beyond what we have now,” Chapman says. “In A Pirate’s Life, there are things that we've done in this that we've always wanted to do. Sirens, ocean crawlers, there's cosmetics in the game called ocean crawler with all the coral on it. And so those are a lot of the ideas that are included in A Pirate’s Life have been there for some time. As we go forward, we'll keep looking at the treasure chest of ideas and things that we want to do. I think the man o’ war would be awesome in Sea of Thieves, but no specific plans at the moment.”
A Pirate’s Life features The Flying Dutchman from Pirates of the Caribbean, the first ship in Sea of Thieves to feature below deck cannons, triple barrel front cannons, as well as fore and aft sails. It looks intimidating, and no doubt sailing a ship like this will be something that shoots to the top of most players’ feature wishlists once they see it. Unfortunately, you can’t even climb aboard for a close look when you’re fighting it - it’s more of a scripted battle than Sea of Thieves players are used to.
If you want more details on A Pirate’s Life, check out our full interview on the Sea of Thieves and Pirates of the Caribbean crossover.